Magick Without Tears

54 "On Meanness" Cara Soror, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Yes, indeed! As you surmise, the injunction to "buy the egg of a perfectly black hen without haggling" is another way of putting the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price; a much better way. For the Pearl-buyer did think of equating the values, which is precisely what one must not do. That Egg is incommensurable with money. (Further, the saying teaches one to insist on perfection; the hen must not have one tinge of aught but black in any feather.) To begin, Economy does not mean thrift or cheeseparing. It means: the law of the house. In practice , one may say "management." Finances are only one branch of the science, just as truckling , blackmail, graft, treachery and double-dealing are only components of modern sta tesmanship . Firstly (dearly beloved brethren) meanness is flat contradiction to the Teaching of The Book of the Law. For The word of Sin is Restriction , and meanness is plainly a most flagrant case of Restriction. Also, there is nearly always an element of Fear in meanness; at least, I would like to bet that 95 percent of mean people originally became so because they foresaw a friendless and penniless old age. And fear is particularly forbidden in the Book: III: 16: "fear not to undergo the curses." Waxing in wrath , III: 17 goes on: "Fear 345